Apocalypse
by evil superman
Summary: At first the SGC had no idea how important the young man, who could cause the Tok’ra to come running with a single word, a young man who could bring Selmak to tears, was when he literally fell into their laps.
1. Mystery Man

Title: Apocalypse

Spoilers: Nothing specific if anything.

Season: (AU) Doesn't really matter but any time after Jacob becomes a Tok'ra.

Warnings: Maybe some language

Summary: At first he SGC had no idea how important the young man, who could cause the Tok'ra to come running with a single word, a young man who could bring Selmak to tears, was when he literally fell into their laps.

Parings: Not sure yet it's a WIP so anything's possible.

Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Stargate SG-1 or anything to do with the X-Men world. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author.

A/N: This is kind of sort of a cross over with X-Men Evolution but I probably won't actually bring any main X-Men characters in, some of them may make quick appearances and/or be mentioned but it's mostly just the fact that mutants exist that makes this story have anything to do with the X-Men. You don't really need to know anything about the X-Men to understand this story. And also I borrowed the word "Mah'di" from the Dune series but this story has absolutely nothing to do with Dune in any way shape or form I just liked the word.

* * *

The night sky was clear and full of stars shining like diamonds, as the figure of a young man, with slightly shaggy black hair, a muscular and well toned body, and a tan from years spent in the sun, crashed through the woods, heart racing. 'Run. Gotta keep running. Don't look back' was the only thing flashing through the figure's head. 

Trees everywhere reached out trying to trip up the man. Exhaustion was threatening to take over, but the sound of angry voices shouting from not far behind kept him moving. The man had been so sure he could rescue the group of mutants being held by The FOH and destroy the base with out any help from any one.

Of course he'd freed the mutants he always did when he undertook these kind of missions. It was the second part of his plan that had backfired. The FOH had been busy these last few months improving their defenses and because of his self centeredness and arrogance he'd nearly been caught himself, would be if he didn't find somewhere to hide out and soon.

As if some higher power had been listening the man came across a fence with a large sign declaring the area beyond it as being Military property and trespassers would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

'Stay here and definitely get caught by The FOH or take my chances with the military?' The man only took a split second to decide before scrambling over the fence and once again disappearing into the cover of the trees.

The fence didn't stop the man's pursuers any more than it had the man, they continued after their prey never letting up. Feeling his adrenalin rush beginning to wear off the man desperately looked for a place to hide. Again as if some higher power had been listening the man tripped over something on the ground.

Looking closer the man discovered a metal hatch. Taking a quick moment to catch his breath the man debated over whether or not he should explore the hatch and see where it took him. With the help of his enhanced senses the man was able to hear and smell his pursuers closing in. Glancing over his shoulder the man was just able to, thanks to his enhanced sight, see a brief silhouette of one of his chasers. Not bothering and not having time to try and pick the lock on the hatch the man merely phased through the hatch never looking back.

* * *

Today had not been a good day for Jack. Due to an over all diagnostic being run on the gate and the entire base computer system all off world missions had been put on hold, which meant Jack was stuck trying to catch up on almost four months worth of paper work. 

As far as Jack was concerned it had been a completely unfair day. Sam had gotten to have her fun with the diagnostic, Daniel had gotten to play with his rocks and what not, and Teal'c well Jack wasn't sure what he'd been up to all day, but what ever it was Jack was sure it had to have been a lot more fun than paper work.

Thankfully the day was almost over all Jack had to do now was attend a quick briefing with Sam and General Hammond about how the diagnostic had gone, and then he'd be off scot-free and able to go home and do absolutely nothing for the rest of the night.

Arriving in the briefing room Jack was slightly surprised to find Daniel and Teal'c there along with Sam and General Hammond. 'Man their day must have been more boring than I thought if they're willing attending this briefing' Jack thought to himself as he took his seat.

* * *

Finding his way into the venting system the man began trying to find another way out of where ever he was. After about five minutes of crawling the man felt the last of the adrenalin that had kept him going seep out of his body. Not having the energy to go on the man stopped moving and rested for a bit. 

Knowing that he had to keep going the man began to force himself forward again, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his side. Investigating where the pain came from the man found the side of his shirt coved in blood and a gunshot wound in his side.

'Guess those guys weren't as bad of a shot as I thought.' The figure slightly smirked. 'That explains why I feel like I have no energy: bleeding to death will tend to do that to you.'

Ripping the sleeves off his sweater the man quickly bandaged the wound the best he could, before slowly continuing forward. Another ten minutes and the man had to stop and rest again. Deciding he might as well see what he could learn about where he was while he was resting, the man made himself as comfortable as possible next to a vent cover.

With his wound still bleeding heavily and the energy draining out of him it was difficult for the man to fully follow the conversation going on below in what looked like a briefing room of sorts, he did pick up something about a diagnostic but that was about it.

With out fully realizing it the man had started to drift off. At the last minute the man jerked himself awake causing himself to feel light headed and dizzy. Trying to get his bearings the man leaned over on one side, that's when he heard it a small creak. Staring down the man realized he'd moved himself onto the vent, before he could even think about moving the vent gave out under the weight of his body and sent him crashing down on the briefing room table right on his injured side.

The man squeezed his eyes shut and bit down on his lower lip to keep from crying out as agonizing pain shot through his body threatening to make him pass out. After a second the pain went from agonizing to a dull throb. Opening his eyes the man was greeted by the shocked stares of all those in the room.

One of the people breaking out of their shock went to reach for the man. Reacting on pure instinct learnedfrom years of being chased after, the man with out thinking roll off the table only to have the pain in his side race through his body again. This time it was too much and the last thing he registered before unconsciousness began to claim him was someone calling for a Dr. Frasier.

* * *

General Hammond had been getting ready to dismiss SG-1 to go home after what he had to admit had been a nice quite and uneventful day, when out of nowhere a young man had come falling almost literally into his lap. After that his nice quiet, uneventful day had gone right out the window. 

Immediately the base had been put on alert and every inch of it had been searched for more intruders. When no more intruders had been found and Dr. Frasier was sure the man was no longer in any danger of bleeding to death General Hammond had called a briefing to see what they'd learned about the man.

"As you all know at about 22:00 hours we discovered an intruder." Hammond started. "Now what I want to know is who is this man and what was he doing here? Doctor?"

"Well unfortunately the young man had no identification on him so I couldn't tell you who he is. I do know that he came in with two gunshot wounds to the side. One shout was just a graze and not too deep, how ever the other gunshot wound was a lot more serious and we were forced to take him into surgery." Janet reported. "He should fully recover."

"So he's human then?" Sam asked when Janet was done.

"Yes as far as I can tell. I'm still waiting on some lab results but all preliminary tests say he's a normal human."

"What no snake in the head, poison in the teeth, bomb in the chest?" Jack jumped in sarcastically.

"No sir. He's a normal human male, I'd say he's about 19-20 years old."

This wasn't making any sense to the people in the room. They were so use to dealing with the strange and unusual that no one was quiet sure how to handle dealing with something considered normal. Before anything more could be said the group was interrupted by call for security to the infirmary.

Not waiting to be dismissed Janet bolted from the room headed for the infirmary with SG-1 and Hammond right on her heels.

* * *

Jerking awake after one hell of a nightmare the young sat up straight in the bed he was laying in. The sheets and blankets were twisted all around his body and covered in sweat. Quickly gathering himself the man checked out his surroundings andfound himself in what looked to be a military lab/hospital. 

'Shit I gotta get the hell out of here and fast.' The man knowing full well from experience what could happen if they found out he was a mutant quickly but with out drawing attention to himself got out of bed. After a hurried scan of the room the man found a pair of scrub pants and pulled them on getting rid of the hospital gown he had been wearing.

The man wasn't naïve he knew there'd be guards. So shoeless (the man preferred it that way. Made it easier to get around silently) and shirtless the man quickly made for the door trying to escape, hoping to catch the guards off guard.

The man hadn't been expecting as many guards as there were. He'd only thought there'd be the typical one or two guards not four. The man managed to take the two by his door by surprise but not before one of them could alert the other two that were standing by a door further down the corridor.

Like before the man reacted with pure instinct, letting his almost animal like side, that he struggled so hard to suppress every day, come to the surface. It wasn't long before more people were alerted to the fight and more guards appeared to try and help restrain the man.

The man had just finished downing another guard and was starting to go at it with another one when Frasier, SG-1, and Hammond arrived on the scene. Seeing that there was no way they were going to be able to physically restrain the man Jack grabbed a zat from a near by SF and fired at the man.

The man felt the energy of the zat blast hit him and instead of being incapacitated by it the man just absorb the energy into his body, quickly finished with the guard and then turned towards Jack. Thinkingthe man was about to go after his CO the SF raised his gun about to shoot when the man, seeing the SF raise his gun, merely raised one hand and shocked everybody watching by creating an energy ball in his hand and throwing it at the SF hitting him square in the chest, sending the SF to the ground.

"Ya'll might wanna to be thinking real hard about your next move." The man warned, creating another energy ball in his hand. "Now if you'll all excuse me I'll be on my way."

Not knowing what else to do the others put their weapons down and stood out of the man's way. With the energy ball still in his hand the man made to leave when he stopped short, cocked his head slightly, closed his eyes and took a few sniffs of the air. Turning towards Sam the man took a few more sniffs and then opened his eyes looking directly into Sam's.

"You are of the Tok'ra…or at least you were." The man stated. After taking another quick sniff the man closed his eyes in sorrow and heaved a small sigh and whispered one word that had everyone in shock and taking a closer look at the man trying to figure out who or what he was. "Jolinar."

* * *

So who is this mysterious man? What is this mysterious man? How does he know about Sam being a host and Jolinar? Review if you want to find out. 

And remember this is a WIP, I'm making it up as I go along so if you have any ideas let me know I might like to use them (With your permission of course).


	2. Mah'di

After making his statement the man closed his fist causing the energy ball to disappear and took a more relaxed and less hostile stance. Seeing the looks on the others' faces a very small grin spread across the man's face.

"Who…what…are you?" Sam stuttered still trying to figure this man out.

"What's the matter? You're all acting like you ain't never seen a mutant up close and personal before." The man mocked the military personnel that were just standing there staring.

"How is it you know of the Tok'ra and Jolinar?" Teal'c demanded staring the man straight in the eyes, ignoring the man's comment.

"I know quite a bit more than you think former Jaffa of Apophis." The man turned back to Sam. "And as for who I am I think you already know or should I say Jolinar knows?"

"I'll admit you look vaguely familiar, but I don't have access to all of Jolinar's memories." Sam admitted.

"Then I suggest you ask the Tok'ra. But for now you can call me Ryu."

"And just what makes you think they'd tell us anything? They're not exactly known for their sharing skills." Jack interrupted getting inpatient with the whole situation.

"Yes and what do you suggest we tell them to get them here, because I don't think 'Hey a guy broke into our base and told us to ask you who he is' is going to cut it." Daniel added in.

"Simple, tell them the Mah'di has returned and they **_will_** come running." With that Ryu turned and returned to the room he'd been in when he first woke up, leaving the others to sort out the mess in the corridor and figure out just what the hell they were going to do.

* * *

After a lengthy conversation with the president and a not quite as long one with his flagship team General Hammond decided to go a head and contact the Tok'ra. It couldn't have been more than five minuets after the SGC had sent the message that the Stargate activated and Jacob/Selmak came walking through. 

Not waiting to be greeted Jacob/Selmak sprinted out of the gate roomtowards the nearest elevator, meeting SG-1 and Hammond along the way.

"Where is he, this man claiming to be the Mah'di?" Selmak demanded not slowing down his paced. "Take me to him at once."

"Wow, the guy wasn't kidding when he said the Tok'ra would come running." Jack joked as they all got on the elevator.

"Jack shut up this is serious. If this man really is who he claims to be it could change everything." Jacob taking control admonished Jack.

"What is so important about this guy?" Daniel questioned.

"Let's just put it this way he could be humanity's greatest hope for survival." Selmak once again took over.

Letting Selmak's words sink in the rest of the elevator ride was silent. Janet met the group as they arrived in the infirmary and entered Ryu's.

"Selmak I see you've acquired a new host since last we met old friend." Ryu spoke as he rose from where he'd been sitting Indian style on the bed with his back to the door.

Turning to face Selmak, Ryu held out one of his arms, looking Selmak in the eyes. It only took Selmak a split second to grasp Ryu's forearm in a Jaffa style handshake and pull him into a tight embrace, tears slowly trailing down his face.

"It is you. I always had a feeling you were still alive, but how?" Selmak, pushing Ryu back slightly, but never losing physical contact, questioned after a moment.

"It's a long story old friend. Basically after Arina… I felt so empty inside. For the first time in my life my mind was silent, I wasn't able to hear her and my life seemed pointless. I couldn't deal with everything that was going on, I had to get away and try to find a purpose a new reason to keeping fighting. So after the whole rebellion, instead of returning, I hid here on earth hoping you would think me dead as well.

"Sorry to interrupt but…" General Hammond reminded the two friends others were waiting for some answers.

"You want some answers." Ryu finished. "Of course."


	3. Answers

After Ryu got a quick change of clothes the group relocated themselves to the briefing room.

"So Selmak you wanna tell them or should I?" Ryu asked once they were all settled.

"Oh by all means go right ahead." Selmak replied.

"Ok now before I start ya'll might wanna make sure you're comfy this could take awhile."

"Just get on with it please." Hammond spoke up.

"Right so any quick little questions before I really get into the story?"

"I have one." Janet spoke. "How were you able to tell that Major Carter was once a Tok'ra host? You have no naquada in your blood and even if you did you wouldn't be able to tell if the person was Goa'uld or Tok'ra, let alone the name of the symbiote."

"Simple by scent."

"By scent?"

"Yeah. For those of you who may not have noticed before I'm a mutant, and I'll assume you've all heard of mutants how could you've not? And one of my abilities are heightened senses you know sight, sound, smell. Any way just like people every symbiote has their two basic scents: their base scent and their individual scent.

The base scent is what tells me if a person is a mutant or a non-mutant, or in this case or Tok'ra or a Goa'uld. And the individual scent is what tells me who the person is. The more I'm around a person the more I'm able to distinguish their individual scent from others and I knew Jolinar's scent quite well she was like a sister to me."

"But I no longer have Jolinar in me…" Sam jumped in.

"So how was I able to pick up her scent? Basically when a person and a symbiote merge they become one and essentially the host winds up with four slightly merge scents. So even though you no longer carry Jolinar, remnants of her scent are still with you. That answer your questions?"

"Yeah, but you know what? With all the weird and unusual stuff I deal with on a daily basis, the whole mutant issue has never really seemed all that big a deal and interesting to me as it is to other people, so what do say we put the whole mutant thing aside and get to the real issue here?" Jack stated. "How the hell do you know about the Tok'ra and stuff like that?"

"Right…ok to answer that question we're gonna have to get into a bit of a history lesson. What do you know if anything about Rama-Tut and Apocalypse?"

Everyone in the room automatically turned to look at Daniel.

"Um…let's see off the top of my head…I believe they were pharaohs in ancient Egypt roughly some 5,000 years ago or so. I couldn't tell much other than that with out doing some research."

"Yes, but I bet you didn't that Rama-Tut was a Goa'uld, but not just any Goa'uld. He was a Goa'uld from the future who had managed to get his hands on some seriously kick-ass advanced technology. He used that technology to travel back in time to before Ra ever stepped foot on earth, hoping he could use it to his advantage and become the big head honcho instead of Ra... You all may want to take notes I might be quizzing you later…" The others just glared at Ryu, silently telling him to get on with the story. "…Or maybe not."

"Anywayat this same time the first known mutant, En Sabah Nur, was born." Ryu turns to Jack. "And yes I know you don't care about the mutant issue but this is important to the story.

Any way En Sabah Nur, originally a nameless gray-skinned mutant was abandoned at birth to die in the harsh Egyptian desert. However, his cries were heard and a tribe of bandits led by a warrior named Baal rescued him…and no it wasn't the System Lord Baal this was a totally different guy.

Baal named him En Sabah Nur, meaning "The First One" and installed the basic philosophy of the bandit tribe: Survival of the Fittest into En Sabah Nur. Under Baal's tutelage and protection, En Sabah Nur became a powerful, almost invincible warrior. No one could touch him because of his mutant prowess.

During this time, the Pharaoh Rama-Tut fell from the skies, carrying with him a great futuristic technology, which he used to conquer his part of Egypt. However, when word came to him of En Sabah Nur, and his many victories in battle, Rama-tut ordered his destruction, seeing En Sabah Nur as a real threat to his power. Rama-Tut's warriors/Jaffa, what ever you wanna call them, killed all of the bandits, including Baal, but En Sabah Nur survived and was enraged.

In a murderous, vengeful rampage En Sabah Nur used all of his powers and decimated Rama-Tut's armies and land. Witnessing the rampage Rama-Tut realized that with En Sabah Nur as a host he could rule not only all of earth but the entire galaxy. So after luring the mutant into one finale battle Rama-Tut allowed En Sabah Nur to deliver a deadly blow to his host and used that moment to take En Sabah Nur as his new host.

With his new host the Goa'uld quickly rose to power again and took the name Apocalypse, due to all the death and destruction his host had caused. While searching through what remained of his empire Apocalypse found his queen symbiote dead and only four surviving symbiotes all in need of a host, leaving him with no way to create an army of Jaffa.

So taking the four symbiotes Apocalypse found the four greatest warriors alive, two male and two female and had them implanted with the symbiotes. But before making them hosts Apocalypse used an artifact called the Eye of Ages, which he planned to use "To reshape the world in his image" to turn them into mutants like him. Each warrior was given abilities in one of the four basic types of mutant powers: Elemental, Feral, Molecular, and Psionic. These four warriors were renamed War, Famine, Plague, and Death: The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse.

Over time the Elemental and Feral fell in love and had a son and the Molecular and Psionic fell in love and had a daughter. Each child had the abilities and most of the memories of their parents. For years the children were kept secrete from Apocalypse, but eventually he learned of their existence and became furious.

Fearing for the lives of their children the horsemen betrayed Apocalypse and trapped him in side the Eye of Ages locking it behind three doors hoping he would never be released. Knowing if Apocalypse were ever freed he would slaughter them, the four horsemen left earth when their children were old enough to look out for themselves, leaving their children behind to keep watch over Apocalypse's tomb.

Like their parents, over time the children fell in love with each other and had children of their own: twins, one boy and one girl. Those children were my sister Arina and myself. We were pure bloods; we had the blood of all four horsemen running through our veins, and all of their abilities as well, powers to rival those of Apocalypse's."

"Ok there is no way I'm going to believe you're nearly 5,000 years old. How would that even be possible?" Jack interrupted.

"If you'll just hold your horses I'll get to that. Now where was I? …Oh right…my sister and me. Anyway my mother, having pre-cog skills, saw many possible futures where Apocalypse was eventually released and she along with my father knew that my sister and I were probably the only hope of stopping him if that ever happened. So when Arina and I were around ten our parents, using the last of the advanced technology not being used to hold Apocalypse, altered our DNA some how so that for roughly every 225 years that go by we aged physically one year.

Eventually our parents died of old age and not long after Ra came to earth. Fearing another Apocalypse scenario my sister and I did what we could to thwart Ra at every turn and keep him from becoming too powerful with out actually being discovered. On one such occasion we sorely underestimated Ra and were almost killed, but at the last second a young Tok'ra named Selmak saved us. Grateful we told Selmak everything about us feeling we could trust the Tok'ra who had saved our lives.

Apparently the Tok'ra had heard stories and rumors about Rama-Tut and Apocalypse because Selmak didn't seem to surprised by our story. Hell the Tok'ra even had a prophecy or something like that about how one day Apocalypse would rise again and only a pure blood, known as the Mah'di, would be able to stop him.

Believing either my sister or myself to be that Mah'di the Tok'ra took us in willingly and taught us everything about their ways. Feeling we had learned everything we could from the Tok'ra we returned to earth and helped lead an uprising against Ra and any other Goa'uld that was on earth, driving them off the planet. Unfortunately my sister was killed towards the end of the rebellion.

Afterwards I felt like I had nothing, no purpose. My reason for fighting was gone so instead of returning to the Tok'ra I stayed here on earth, wandering around from place to place searching for something anything to give me a purpose, a reason to fight again.

Finally a few years ago, after hundreds of years of searching, I found what I was looking for with a group of mutants known as the X-Men. But even I knew it couldn't last forever, if I stayed too long I risked them finding out who and what I really was, so a couple of years ago I left as much as I hated to and have been on my own since."

Done speaking Ryu sat down in one of the empty seats and waited to see if any of the others had anything to say. Nobody spoke for quite some time, all busy taking in and thinking about what Ryu had told them.

"Why now?" Jacob broke the silence. "Why after all these years did you use the Stargate to contact the Tok'ra?"

"To be honest that was never my intention, I didn't come to Colorado to find the gate and contact the Tok'ra. Hell as far as I had known the Stargate was still buried."

"Then for what purpose were you in the area?" Teal'c questioned.

"I was in the area freeing some mutants that were being held by The Friends of Humanity. One thing led to another I got chased, found an access hatch to this place, did a little exploring of the vent system; fell through a vent, and so on. When I figured out the Stargate was here I figured what the hell I may as well get a hold of Tok'ra, I'm gonna need all the help I can get."

"Help with what?" Selmak inquired.

"Oh did I forget to mention the little fact that Apocalypse has almost gotten himself free again?"

"Uh yeah." Jack answered.

"Yeah you see there's this mutant, calls himself Mesmero, that has managed to unlock the first two doors and is currently trying to find the key to unlock the third door. The X-Men and what not are trying to find the third key before Mesmero and keep him from unlocking the third door, but I fear they may not succeed."

"These X-Men just what exactly do they know about Apocalypse?" General Hammond jumped in, a slight tone of worry in his voice.

"Don't worry they don't know anything about the Goa'uld or any of that. All they know is that Rama-Tut was an alien from the future, got his but kicked by Apocalypse, and that Apocalypse is a powerful super mutant bent on world domination. They don't want him free any more than we do. Mutants have a bad enough rep as it is but throw in a homicidal, power hungry, nut job, maniac and it'll impossible for us mutants to live with you non-mutants peacefully."

"Alright, so how can we help?" Sam asked.

"That I haven't quite figured out yet. We'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it."


	4. Awakening

A/N: Ok first of all I'd like to say thanks to those who have reviewed so far. And second I gotta ask **IS THERE ANYONE OUT THERE**? Come on people I'm really starting to feel not loved here. Do I have to beg for reviews because I will...no really I will, begging is so not beneath me. I mean I know I'm not the greatest writer in the world, but come on throw me a bone here or something, please.

Ok sorry about that just need to get that off my chest. Now on with the story.

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(Tibet)

Somewhere deep in the Himalayan Mountains Mesmero, Rogue (being controlled by Mesmero), and Mystique enter an old cave coming upon the third door holding Apocalypse back.

After a brief argument between Mesmero and Mystique about Mystique being the third key, she morphs herself into a King Cobra and slithers through a small hole at the bottom corner of the door. Finding herself in a round room with a small pillar Mystique hesitates for a moment, before placing a hand on the pillar, causing the walls to begin rotating.

Afraid Mystique moves to retract her hand, but finds herself stuck to the pillar and beginning to turn to stone. As Mystique turns to stone Rogue enters the room, and starts descending down a set of stairs. Reaching the Eye of Ages Rogue places a gloveless hand on the 'Eye' and it begins emitting a fierce green light. Inside there's a very old looking En-Sabah-Nur, but as Rogue looks at him, he starts to open his eyes.

Outside a battle between Mesmero and the combined forces of the X-Men, Brotherhood, and Acolytes rages on. Back inside Apocalypse has grabbed a hold of Rogue's hand and begun sapping out all the powers Rogue had absorbed and grows younger.

Rising out of the 'Eye' Apocalypse disables the other mutants with a type of shockwave and floats over to a vessel of some kind. As Apocalypse reaches the vessel two of the downed mutants: Professor Xavier and Magneto come to, Magneto tries to stop Apocalypse, but gets thrown down by another shockwave and the vessel disappears.

"We have... failed." Magneto declares, looking at Xavier

"Yes, and our greatest battle has only just begun." Xavier answers.

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(Back at the SGC)

After spending another hour or so in the briefing room the group was finally dismissed. Janet returned to the infirmary, General Hammond retreated to his office to make some important phone calls, ordering Jack to stay on base and get his paper work done as he did so, Jack muttering something, about evil paper work taking over the world, under his breath returned to his own office, and Teal'c left to go kel-nor-eem, leaving Ryu, Daniel, Sam, and Selmak to their own devices.

Daniel wanting to know everything Ryu had seen and learned over the years began to herd him towards his office. Selmak wanting to spend as much time as he could with Ryu before returning to the Tok'ra and Sam wanting to spend as much time as she could with her dad before said event, tagged along as well.

Half way to Daniel's office Ryu suddenly stopped in the middle of what he was saying and doubled over as if in pain, placing a steadying hand on the nearest wall.

"Ryu?" Selmak was quickly at his friends side, with Sam not far behind. Daniel found the nearest phone and paged a med team to their location.

"No…no…no" Ryu whispered so softly the others almost didn't hear him. Then a little more loudly, but still in a whisper, "I can feel him…I don't know how this is possible…but I can sense him, it's almost as if he's a part of me."

"Who?" "Ryu what's happening?" Sam and Selmak questioned at the same time. But before Ryu could answer he began to collapse, losing consciousness.

Quickly catching Ryu so he didn't hurt himself falling, Selmak and Sam lowered him to the ground gently. At the same time Ryu collapsed Janet and some medics had come around the corner and were at his side before the others had even finished lowering him to the ground.

"What happened?" Janet demanded looking at Daniel, as she started checking her patient over.

"I'm not sure one minute he was telling me some things about his life then the next thing I know he's doubling over as if in pain and passing out." Daniel answered.

Declaring him stable enough to move Janet and her medics hurriedly placed Ryu on a gurney and whisked him off to the infirmary leaving the others to try and figure out what had happened.

"What was that all about?" They all heard General Hammond ask. Shortly after hanging up with the president general Hammond had been alerted to the situation and had just arrived.

"I'm not sure, but I have a feeling it's too late." Selmak answered heading in the direction Ryu had been taken.

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30 minutes later SG-1, General Hammond, Janet, and Selmak were again gathered in the briefing room.

"So Doctor can you tell us what happened?" Hammond inquired about their guest.

"Well sir for some unknown reason Ryu passed out." Janet started her report. "As far as I can tell he's perfectly fine, even his gunshot wound is almost completely healed, which doesn't really surprise me considering some of the mutant abilities he has."

"So basically we got squat and are stuck back at square one." Jack summed up.

"Yes sir, that about sums it up."

"Well that's just peachy." The others nodded their heads in agreement.

An Airmen walking into the room interrupted the meeting.

"Sorry to interrupt sirs, but our guest in the infirmary has woken up." The Airmen reported.

"Thank you Airmen. Dismissed." Hammond dismissed the Airmen and the group moved to the infirmary.

In the infirmary the group found Ryu sitting up in bed Indian style, looking almost as though he were meditating. Sensing the others enter the room Ryu looked and uttered one sentence that had every one's blood running cold.

"Apocalypse has been freed."


	5. Begining of the end?

A/N: Well I guess my little rant from the last chapter worked cause I got a few more reviews than the last chapters. Thank you all who reviewed and please keep it up, thanks.

Ok before we get into the story I got some questions from reviewers I'd like to answer. I'm sorry I can't exactly remember who asked what and what they asked and since I'm writing this during school I don't have access to FF and can't look it up.

Anyway one person I believe asked if this was going to be a long story and to be honest I have no idea how long it's going to be. It's a WIP I'm making it up as I go.

Next someone wanted to know if my Dune reference was intentional. In away I guess it was but also it wasn't really. Like I said at the beginning I used the wordbecause I liked it. But now that I think about, if I remember correctly from one of the movies they showed on SCI-FI the word Mah'di means messiah and that's basically what Ryu is. He's there to deliver the world from the hands of evil.

And last I think there was something about Ryu having any weaknesses. Don't worry he will have some kind I just have to figure out what exactly and how to weave it into the story and make it sound good. I have a whisper of an idea but nothing concrete, so any ideas are welcome (hint, hint).

All right I thinks that's it. If there were any other questions I forgot, I'm sorry I'll try to get to them next time.

Wow that was a long A/N now on with the story.

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It had been a long couple of days since Apocalypse's release and Ryu and the others were no closer to having any answers than before. Almost as soon as Apocalypse was freed he seemed to disappear again. Even though Ryu could sense Apocalypse he had no idea how to use that ability to find him.

Deciding they needed more information Selmak returned to the Tok'ra to see what information he could dig up. While waiting for Selmak to return the others kept their eyes and ears open for any news that might lead them to Apocalypse or at least give them a hint as to where to start looking.

After a few hours Selmak finally returned with some information, not much but it was more than they had before.

"So Jacob what'ch ya got?" Jack asked as SG-1, Ryu, and Hammond gathered in the briefing room.

"Unfortunately no much. All I was able to find really was an old script with the original prophecy on it and some very vague references to the Eye of the Ages." Jacob answered.

"And this prophecy says what exactly?" Ryu spoke up.

"It pretty much says that one day a great evil, not of it's time, known as the Apocalypse will once again rise and spread across the land like a plague. Many will oppose and try to stand against the evil, but all shall fail except for one: a pure blood known as the Mah'di…" Janet walking in interrupted Jacob.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I just recorded something on the news this morning that I think you're all gonna wanna see." Janet stated as she walked into the room and popped a tape into a VCR.

As the group watched the screen a reporter came on. In the background there were lots of military vehicles and personnel and what appeared to be an energy dome of some kind.

"We come to you live from Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico where some archeologists have found what appears to be an energy dome of some kind." The reporter started. "Military personnel have been working around the clock since they were made aware of the discovery, but have still found no answers. (Shows a close up of some military officers working. Then goes back to the reporter). At a loss as to what to do the military has allowed a group of mutants known as the X-Men to try and see if they can make any sense out of what's happening here.

The scene changes from the reporter to where the X-Men are working. The mutants try using not only their powers but also some high tech tools to try and crack through the dome. Everything they try winds up blowing up in their faces.

Suddenly one of the mutants points to something in the sky. The camera moves up and a giant metal sphere can be seen hurtling towards the dome. As it slows it's decent another mutant can be seen emerging from the sphere.

Once clear of the sphere the mutant manipulates the sphere into a bullet shaped object and hurls it at the dome. When the bullet shaped sphere is shattered the mutant uses his powers to pick up tanks, jeeps, and anything else he can reach and hurls them at the sphere as well. When none of that seems to work the mutant begins pulling satellites from orbit, which begin to break up on reentry and catch on fire. What's left of them plunge past him as massive fireballs, but even they fail to damage the dome in anyway.

At this point Apocalypse can be seen emerging from the top of the dome just in time to divert the final satellite back towards the other mutant. The mutant is able to dodge it just in time, but Apocalypse uses his powers to jerk the screaming, powerless mutant about. Bands of colors and static form, then close about the mutant until he seemingly implodes, then there's nothing. After wards Apocalypse slowly descends back into the dome.

The people in the briefing room watched in stunned silence as the tape ended. For several minutes no one said anything.

"Ok does that little prophecy of yours say anything about how I'm supposed to defeat Apocalypse?" Ryu broke the silence turning to face Selmak. "Because to be quite honest I'm very fond of me the way I am, in one piece, and I seriously don't want to wind up like Magneto (A/N: The mutant Apocalypse squashed)."

For a second Selmak just stared at Ryu before answering. "Um…let's see it says something about the Mah'di being forced to make a great sacrifice that would be the difference between the life or destruction of all man."

"Great so no pressure…just the fate of the world ridding on my shoulders…yup no pressure at all, none what so ever…this is just peachy." Ryu mumbled quietly to himself, but the others heard him anyway.

"Jacob you said you had some information on this Eye of the Ages?" Daniel questioned ignoring Ryu's mumbling. Years of dealing with Jack had made Daniel a master of ignoring things like that.

"Yes, from what I can gather the 'Eye' uses some kind of radiation I've never seen or even heard of before to manipulate a person's DNA and activate the X-gene, essentially making them a mutant."

"Wait X-gene?" Sam jumped in.

"Yeah it's what makes mutants, mutants." Ryu answered before either Jacob or Janet could. "Every mutant has an extra gene in their DNA that causes them to develop unique abilities…well actually I guess that's not quiet true. Every body has an X-gene, it's just a matter of whether it's active or not. Basically if your X-gene's active you're a mutant, if it's not active you're not a mutant."

"And that's exactly what the Eye of the Ages is designed to do, activate a person's X-gene. Apocalypse wants to reshape the world in his image and that's exactly what he's going to do unless he can be stopped." Jacob finished.

"Wow, you really know how not to lay the pressure on a guy, don't ya?"

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A/N: Ok people just to let you know I'm starting to run out of ideas for this story, so if you have any no matter how small, let me know, please, because if I don't start getting some more ideas soon this story will probably be finished in another two or three chapters.


	6. Weaknesses and Superman

A/N: I have to thank Mountain King for making a suggestion that helped plant the seed that gave me the idea for Ryu's weakness and the encouragement to keep going with this story. **THANK YOU.**

Also thanks to my other reviewer's for reviewing as well.

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It had now been a couple of months since Apocalypse's release and Ryu was beginning to get frustrated. In the last months two more energy domes had appeared one in the Shansi Province of China and another one in Egypt.

The energy domes weren't really what was making Ryu frustrated though, it was the fact that as long as Apocalypse hid himself away inside them there was nothing Ryu could do to get at him. Ryu had tried everything he could think of to get inside one of the energy domes with no success and he had the bumps, bruises, and even burns to prove it.

It was nothing but a waiting game now. There was nothing anyone could do as long as Apocalypse was in the safety of his energy domes, only wait for him to make the first move. Resigning himself to that fact Ryu, bored out of his mind, took to annoying as many people as he could at the SGC, to the point where people were beginning to call him a mini-Jack.

After being thrown out of the commissary because of a small, minor, food fight, if it could even be called that, between himself, with the help of SG-1 (minus Sam) and a small group of Marines, (Who Ryu still claims started it, so what if he _may_ have _accidentally_ flicked some tiny pieces of bread, crumbs really, off his shirt in the direction of one of them), Ryu decided to go bug Sam in her lab.

"Hey Sam what'cha up to?" Ryu, spotting what looked like a small box made of lead, questioned as he and the rest of SG-1 walked into Sam's lab.

"I'm getting ready to run some tests on a new form of naquada SGC-12 found. The natives called it Naquadria."

"Naquadria?"

"Yes according to the scientist SG-12 talked to Naquadria is supposed to be much more powerful then Naquada."

"More powerful, as in a bigger boom?" Jack jumped in his interest piqued.

"Among other things, yes. You can stay and watch if you'd like."

"Sweet."

So as the others made themselves comfortable around various parts of the lab Sam set up the last of her equipment. As Sam lifted the lid off the lead box Ryu began to feel a strange sensation, unlike anything he'd ever felt before. He tried to ignore it at first but as soon as Sam had the Naquadria fully out of the box Ryu felt an explosion of pain rip through his body and settle in his head.

On top of the massive headache Ryu began to feel nauseous and weak. Quickly stumbling to his feet, knocking his chair over, Ryu staggered out the door and down the corridor a little ways before leaning against the wall and sliding down it, pulling his knees up.

Not knowing what was happening SG-1 followed after him. Finding Ryu not far down the corridor, sitting with his knees pulled up, arms resting on them and his head down, the group gathered around him to try and find out what was wrong.

"Ryu you ok?" Jack spoke first

When Ryu didn't answer right away Sam knelt down next to him, placing a comforting hand on his back. "Do we need to get Janet?"

"Wha…No! No, no" Sam's question finally got Ryu's attention. He'd spent enough time, these last months, in Janet's needle happy, Napoleonic power monger hands to last a lifetime. "I'm ok, I'm alright, really I'm startin' to feel better already."

"Mind telling us what that was all about?" Daniel inquired.

"I'm not sure exactly, I mean one minute its all good; Sam's opening her little box thing getting out the Naquadria and then the next thing I know it feels like a damn elephant just sat on my head after a month long drinking binge, I'm getting nauseous, it feels like every bit of energy in me's being drained out faster than I can replenish it and I'm about ready to pass out. But as soon as I got out of the room and the farther away I got, the better I felt."

"You know I think we may have just found your Achilles heel." Sam stated.

"Ya think? I'm pretty sure I now have a better understanding of what Superman deals with every time he gets near kryptonite."

"Who is this Superman you speak of?" Teal'c asked before any one could reply to Ryu's comment.

"Superman… faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, stronger than a speeding locomotive. 'It's a bird, it's a plane, no its Superman.'…You know Superman."

Seeing the blank, slightly confused look on Teal'c's face Ryu continued. "Alright what about Batman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Cat Woman, The Green Lantern?" This time, still getting a blank look, Ryu turned to the rest of SG-1. "Ok this man has been on earth how long? And you haven't taught him anything about great American superheroes… Geeze you people have no respect, no respect at all for great classical American literature, I tell ya. Come I have much to teach you my young friend."

Leaving the others standing in the corridor completely confused and trying to figure out how they went from talking about the one big weakness Ryu may have to being lectured about not teaching Teal'c about comic book heroes, Ryu lead Teal'c down the corridor, telling him all about Superman.

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A/N: Hope you all like this little an hopefully humorous chapter. To be honest this is one of those chapters that completely turn out differently than you planned.

I started it out planning to have it be kind of a serious chapter dealing with a weakness for Ryu, but as I was writing this a conversation I had during school popped into my head and took this chapter in a totally different direction.

Today in one of my classes me and some other kids some how got to talking about who was the best superhero and as I stepped up to bat for Superman this one kid had the nerve to ask me who Superman was (although you gotta give him some leeway he is a foreign exchange student, I can't remember from where though). So of course I then had to go on this little rant about people having no sense of respect for great American literature (aimed mostly at the kid whose family the foreign exchange student's staying with for not at least giving him the basics about American superheroes).

Oh and also I decided to use Naquadria as Ryu's weakness because it sound more plausible than naquada because he's been at the SGC for months now and would have more than like been exposed to naquada on many occasions.

But since this is an AU and fiction I can rearrange things so that they know about Naquadria and have access to it with out the Kelownans, so they would have some around but not as commonly as regular naquada.


	7. Bits of his past

_/Flashback/_

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Ryu couldn't take the waiting any longer all the sitting around and doing nothing was getting them nowhere. Making up his mind Ryu went to inform General Hammond that he was leaving.

"Enter." General Hammond called, when he heard someone knock on his office door. Looking up from his paper work he spotted Ryu standing in the doorway. "What can I do for, son?"

"Nothing actually, I'm just here to let you know that I'll be leaving." Ryu answered. "There's nothing more to be done from here."

"Can I ask where you're going?" Hammond had been suspecting that Ryu would leave he just didn't think it would be until after the whole Apocalypse thing had been dealt with.

"New York, sir. I need to talk to some old friends about any information they might have, that we don't"

"You're going to talk to your X-Men friends aren't you?"

"Yes sir." Ryu had no reason to hide his plans from the general. This effected him as much as anyone.

"In that case I'd like to send SG-1 and Jacob with you." Hammond held up a hand to stop Ryu from protesting. "Just as a security precaution to make sure they don't see or hear anything they're not supposed to while _you're_ fighting Apocalypse."

Seeing where Hammond was coming from Ryu nodded his agreement and then left to inform the others about the plans. When they all agreed to go, Ryu wasn't all that surprised; they'd been just as bored of waiting around as he was.

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Arriving in Westchester the group headed straight to the X-mansion, not having time or the want to stop and sight see. Walking into the mansion Ryu was surprised to find the place looking almost deserted.

For the few years he'd lived there, no matter what, the place was always full of rowdy, rambunctious kids running around. About to call out to the professor telepathically, Ryu noticed Bobby Drake (AKA Iceman) come walking out of the kitchen.

"Hey Popsicle," Ryu called grabbing Bobby by the collar. "Where's everybody at?"

Caught by surprise Bobby just stared at Ryu for a minute, before he registered who was talking to him. "Ryu? What are…?" Bobby stopped short when he noticed the others, in their Airforce uniforms, standing behind Ryu.

Knowing what Bobby was thinking Ryu hurried to reassure the boy the others meant no harm. "Don't worry they're with me, they could care less about doing anything to you or the others. Now answer my question, where are the others?"

"Down in the Cerebro room." Bobby led the group over to the elevator that would take them down to the lower levels of the school.

"Cerebro room?" Sam questioned.

"Yeah it's where the professor keeps this device he created years ago called Cerebro. It helps amplify the professors telepathic abilities so he can find just about any mutant in the world." Ryu gave them the basic run down of what Cerebro was and did.

Entering the room Ryu spotted Logan (AKA Wolverine), Hank (AKA Beast), Scott (AKA Cyclops), Jean, Kitty (AKA Shadowcat), Kurt (AKA Nightcrawler), Rogue, along with other new recruits he didn't know gathered around a holographic image of the Sphinx in Egypt.

Thanks to his enhanced senses Logan was the first to notice the new people in the room. Turning around he found himself staring at Ryu, someone he thought he'd never see again, along with what he knew had to be military personnel. Going into defensive mode Logan let his admantium claws start to slide out of his knuckles.

"What the hell do you think you're doing here, kid?" Logan demanded. "And what's with the uniforms?"

"Check it Badger, they're on our side. I wouldn't have brought them if they couldn't be trusted and I trust them with my life. Well actually I trust Jacob with my life, but he trusts the others and that's good enough for me." Ryu answered. "But I'm not here to argue with you, I'm here because I need to talk to the professor about the whole Apocalypse situation."

"I'm afraid he's not here at the moment." Hank spoke up, before Logan and Ryu could get into a huge argument about what kind of people could be trusted. "As you can see he's in Egypt right know attempting to talk with Apocalypse." Hank indicated the holographic projection showing apocalypse floating above the Sphinx.

"HE WHAT! Do you want him getting squashed like Magneto?"

"We had no choice, he was very determined to try." Jean answered, she knew there was something Ryu was hiding from them, she didn't need her telepathy to tell her that.

"I can't believe this you guys just let him go. There are forces at work here you can't even begin to imagine--."

"Ryu!" Jack warned, before Ryu could say anything he wasn't supposed to.

Not saying anything Ryu turned to leave the room, but was stopped by what he saw on the hologram projection. Professor Xavier and Storm had started fighting it out with Apocalypse, but in the end the same thing that happened to Magneto happened to them.

Everyone in the room was shocked, nobody moved for quite some time. Finally getting over his shock Ryu stormed out of the room heading for the elevator. The others soon followed after him. By the time they caught up with him, he was already out side.

"Damnit kid, where the hell are you going?" Logan once again demanded an answer from Ryu.

"To finish this once and for all, and keep anyone else from getting hurt. The rest of you stay here"

"The hell you are. You're not going any where with out us." One of the female mutants stated and all the others agreed. Ryu was about to argue before he realized whom the voice belonged to.

"Peyton…" Ryu was surprised that she was even talking to him, after what he'd done to her.

_/ It was a dark, cloudy and foggy night, neither the stars or the moon could be see, it was one of those depressing kind of nights. A perfect night to match his mood. As much as he hated it he knew it was time to leave the school, he'd been there for over six years, six years too long._

_He never should have come in the first place, but there was something about these X-Men that called to him, more important there was something about her that had kept him from leaving, but no longer. As if reading his mind she came out of the fog to stand in front of him._

"_You're leaving, why?" The woman asked, searching his eyes for something, she didn't know what._

"_Because it's long past time I moved on." He answered turning his head away._

"_You'll be back someday." She said as more of a statement than a question._

"_Not if I can help it, I won't be." He started walking again._

"_Can you honestly say you'll be happy out there when everything you need is here?" she tried one last ploy to try and get him to stay._

"_I'm not happy now. You're wrong about there being everything I need here, there is nothing here for me. Nothing. Nothing to keep me here." He knew that was a lie, but it had to be said so that she would give up and just let him go._

_Turning he again began to walk away, but not before he heard her whisper softly "I'm here. Isn' t that enough?" And that was true she was here, the one thing that could make him stay, but he couldn't think about that: the wondrous romance they'd had going for the last six years, because if he did then he really would stay and that would cause pain for everyone in the end. Pain he refused to be responsible for. Yes it was better he left now and let her hate him for it, then staying and having her hate him for the pain he would inevitably bring her. / _

Feeling the tension in the group rise several notches SG-1 and Jacob could definitely tell that there was some history between Ryu and this Peyton girl.

"So what's their story?" Jacob, whispering, asked Hank. SG-1 leaned in closer to her his answer.

"For the six years that Ryu was living with us he and Peyton were dating. The two were quite the item, every one was convinced they would get married and start a family together, but then one day for reasons I don't know, he just up and left. Never said a word to any of us and even though Peyton claims she didn't speak with him before he left, I suspect she did and Ryu may have said some things that hurt her.

It took Peyton quite some time to get over his leaving and move on, but even though she's gone on with her life I know she is still very much in love with him and I can guarantee by the look in his eyes Ryu is still very much in love with her, even if he won't admit it." Hank answered, with a certain distant tone in his voice.

Before anyone could speak, they were interrupted by a helicopter with the word S.H.I.E.L.D on the side of it landing on the lawn and a man (Nick Fury), wearing an eye patch, jumped out headed straight for Logan.

"What do you want Fury? We're in the middle of something here." Logan growled at the man.

"I know that's why I'm here." Fury answered, quickly going on to tell the group that the sentinel program had be restarted and sentinels were being sent after Apocalypse. It was a good thing Nick Fury was a fast talker when need be, otherwise Logan would have killed him before he had the chance to explain that he wasn't any happier about the program being restarted than they were.

Returning to the Cerebro room the group watched as the battle between Apocalypse and the sentinels raged on. While Apocalypse battled with three sentinels, three others begin attacking the dome with a new weapon that should allow them to break through the energy barrier.

The group was once again shocked when Apocalypse called upon his new Horsemen, who turned out to be Xavier, Storm, Magneto, and Mystique under some kind of mind control. Apocalypse, after releasing them sent them to defend his pyramids. Xavier was sent to the energy dome in Egypt, Storm the one in China, Magneto the one in Mexico, and Mystique remained with Apocalypse.

Watching as the sentinels were destroyed, one after another, the group knew they had no choice but to travel to the energy domes and attempt to destroy them themselves. Dividing into four groups: one for each dome and one for the Sphinx the groups set out to recruit help from other mutants and then head to their assigned location.

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Back in Mexico, China, and Egypt the sentinels were able to destroy the energy barriers revealing a pyramid underneath each one. But before they could destroy the pyramids, the last of the sentinels were destroyed by Magneto, Storm, and Storm.

At the sphinx, Mystique stood guard out side while Apocalypse returned inside and began preparing for the next step in his plans.

In Egypt a helicopter landed letting out the mutants Boom-Boom, Multiple, Jean, Magma, X23, and Colossus. The helicopter that landed in China let out the mutants Berserker, Beast, Iceman and Spyke. In Mexico the mutants Shadowcat, Sunspot, Havok, Angel and the Scarlet Witch got off a third helicopter. And last Ryu, Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, and Peyton landed at the Sphinx, ready to take on Apocalypse.

SG-1 and Jacob remained on the helicopter that had landed at the Sphinx. They all knew there was nothing they were really going to be able to do help, so had agreed to sit this one out for the time being.

All four groups prepared themselves for what they knew was going to be the biggest fight they'd ever fought. This time they knew they weren't just fighting for the safety and continued existence of mutants, but for the entire world.


	8. Battle

The battle raged on fiercely, to say the fight wasn't going very well for the mutants would be an understatement. It was all they could to keep themselves from getting killed. The sounds of battle could be heard echoing through the sky as time started ticking away for the teams.

Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Ryu, and Peyton all carefully entered the Sphinx, all on the look out for Mystique. None of them liked how quiet it was, just then they felt a slight tremble and knew that something big had just powered up. Suddenly Mystique showed up out of nowhere morphing herself into a swarm of bats.

"Nightcrawler teleport yourself and Peyton to the other side of that door and see what you can do to slow Apocalypse down the rest of us will take care of Mystique and then join as soon as we can." Wolverine ordered.

Not arguing Nightcrawler grabbed Peyton's arm and teleported them in to the room where Apocalypse was working. Not happy about the interruption Apocalypse quickly incapacitated the two. Finished dealing with the intruders Apocalypse powered up The Eye of Ages and entered it. As he laid in the 'Eye' a bunch of lights shot out of him and shot upwards in a crazy manner until they hit a bunch of points on a holographic grid of earth that was being displayed above him.

Apocalypse started transferring his DNA through the lights, creating a huge black void around the earth. Fierce storms raged all around earth in various locations. The process of transferring his DNA caused Apocalypse a great deal of pain, but he knew it was a small price to pay for the new evolution of man.

After several moments of not hearing any thing from the other side of the door Ryu was beginning to get worried. Leaving Wolverine and Cyclops to deal with Mystique, Ryu quickly phased through the door and stopped short when he found Nightcrawler and Peyton's bodies. Kneeling down Ryu prayed he would find a pulse for both of them. Finding they both had slow but steady pulses Ryu let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

Standing up Ryu moved farther into the room. Taking in the layout of the room Ryu soon found himself standing on the edge of a deep pit. Looking down he spotted both Apocalypse and the Eye of Ages. Immense amounts of energy surrounded Apocalypse and the 'Eye'; Ryu could tell he was almost ready to activate the 'Eye'.

Gathering up all of his energy Ryu prepared to throw everything he had at Apocalypse, but was stopped cold when he was hit by a telekinetic blast. Even though Apocalypse was in the 'Eye' he was still plenty capable of using his powers to defend himself. Ryu pulled himself up off the ground and once again charged up, throwing everything he had at Apocalypse.

The fight seemed to go on forever no matter what Ryu threw at him Apocalypse always seemed to find a way to turn that force back on Ryu. Beginning to feel tired and light headed Ryu knew he'd pushed his powers to their limits and just as he was starting to lose hope Wolverine, and Cyclops burst into the room and joined in the fight with Apocalypse. Giving a quick glance through the hole Cyclops had made through the door Ryu noticed a small group of mutants, he couldn't tell who though, dealing with Mystique.

Taking a moment to regain his strength Ryu watched as Apocalypse battled it out with the other two. Watching Ryu realized Apocalypse's powers didn't seem to be has powerful as they were when fighting him, that's when it dawned on Ryu: Apocalypse was some how drawing on his powers to amplify his own. With out Ryu in the battle Apocalypse had no one to draw power from.

Reaching into one of his pockets Ryu pulled out the small lead box Sam had been using to hold a small chunk of Naquadria. Something had told Ryu he would need the Naquadria, so before leaving the SGC he stolen a small piece. Ryu knew what he had to do, how to stop Apocalypse once and for all.

Ryu knew if there was no energy in his body Apocalypse would have nothing to draw on when Ryu came closer. Opening the box Ryu immediately felt the effects the Naquadria was having on his body. Knowing he would get only one shot at this Ryu held on tight to the Naquadria and ran to the edge of the pit, throwing himself over the edge.

The Naquadria combined with immense amounts of energy was too much for the 'Eye' causing it to become unstable and begin pulling itself apart. The energy consumed the 'Eye' Apocalypse, and Ryu and the entire Sphinx began shaking as the intensity of the power grew.

All the mutants hurriedly cleared out of and away from the Sphinx and watched as a giant explosion of energy consumed the Sphinx. The explosion was so huge and bright everyone watching was forced to turn away and shield their eyes, when they turned back they saw that where the great and magnificent Sphinx had once stood was nothing but a large pile a ruble.

With the destruction of the Sphinx the hold Apocalypse had, had over the Professor, Magneto, Mystique, and Storm disappeared and each was given back control of their own minds. When the explosion died down SG-1 and Jacob hurried off the helicopter and joined the small group of mutants gathered around the ruble. They were all frantic with worry about Ryu.

"Damnit were is he?" Jack growled when they couldn't find Ryu.

Seeing the look in Wolverine's eyes Jacob answered, "He made a his sacrifice, the greatest sacrifice any one could make he gave his life in order to stop Apocalypse."

Tears filled the eyes of everybody present as Jacob confirmed what they had feared, Ryu was dead he'd given his life to save them all. There was no fighting the tears and sorrow that washed over the group. Seeing the pure anguish on Peyton's face Jacob pulled the girl into comforting hug, even though he'd only met her a few hours ago the old man already had a soft spot for the girl in his heart. He hated having to see her lose the man she was so deeply in love with.


	9. Happily Ever After

A distinct lack of pain was the first thing Ryu became aware of. He knew he should be in pain because the last thing he remembered was being in the middle of a giant explosion. That's when it hit him that he shouldn't even be aware of anything at all, there was no way even he could have survived that explosion.

Opening his eyes Ryu was assaulted by lots of bright whiteness and a fluffy kind of mist.

"Oh great I died and went to hell" Ryu mumbled when he noticed his surroundings, pulling himself off the ground Ryu soon became aware of a slight laughter, whirling around he came face to face with the last person he would've expected: his sister, Arina.

"Only you would think of a place like this as hell." Arina laughed.

"Arina…but how…I mean…?" Ryu couldn't seem to put a single sentence together.

"To be honest I gave up trying to figure this all out a long time ago. All I know is I am where I'm needed."

Speechless and over whelmed with emotions Ryu just pulled his sister into a tight hug.

"Yes I've missed you to, brother." Arina returned the hug. "It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do, leaving you."

"What do mean?" Ryu finally found his voice.

"Let's just say my death wasn't by accident…" Ryu still had a confused look on his face, so Arina, after leading Ryu over to what appeared to be a park bench and sat down, continued. "You know as well as I do that everybody has their own destinies to fulfill and everybody else has a part to play in other peoples destinies." Ryu nodded his head. "Well part of your destiny was to defeat Apocalypse, Right? And in order for you to do that I had to die."

"But why just me? We could've just as easily defeated him together."

"True but in order to defeat him we would have needed to be on earth, but if I'd lived what are the odds we… _you_ would have still been on earth?"

"Not very good…Ok that may explain part of this but why are we here now?"

"Like I said before I stopped trying to figure this all out a long time ago. But as far as I can tell it has to do with my destiny of making sure yours goes on. Today was not the day for you to die, there are still many things left for you to do in life before you die."

The two siblings sat silently for a while, neither making any noise. Arina was waiting for Ryu to say something and it had been so long since Ryu had seen his sister he didn't want to say anything for fear this was all a dream and he would wake up if he made any sound.

"Why do you push them away, brother?" Arina broke the silence. "These people really do care about you. You should stop hiding and let them in, let '_her'_ in."

"Her?" Ryu was slightly surprised by the sudden topic change.

"Yes _'her'_ you know of how I speak. She truly loves you and yet you insisted on pushing her away. Why?"

"Because I refuse to be the one to bring her pain."

"You mean bring you pain. Don't forget I know you better than you know. I know that in the past you have been hurt by those you _thought_ you were in love with, but the truth is you've never really been in love. Your head my have thought it was love, but your heart and soul never did."

"Never been in love? How can you say that?"

"Because it's true. You never truly loved any of those other women in the past yes you lusted for them, were infatuated with them, but never truly loved them. This time it's different, this time you truly are in love and it frightens you. No matter how much you may want to deny it Peyton is your one and only; your heart and soul."

"You're wrong! I can't except that, I won't except that, because if I do I won't be able to survive when she leaves me and I'm forced to go on for thousands of years with out her."

"Brother you told Selmak that after my death you had no purpose, no reason to keep fighting." Arina paused to look at her brother. "And that you've been searching, since then, for something to give you a new purpose, a new reason to fight. Also you told him that for a time you'd found that with the X-Men."

"Yeah so what's that got to do with my love life?"

"Why do you think that after all these centuries of looking you finally found what you were looking for with them?"

Ryu opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again and sat thinking about his answer. It was several minutes before he answered.

"I guess it was because they were like me. Of all the people I've met in my life they came the closest to understanding me and because I felt that their cause was just."

"Those are good reasons but not the truth. You found what you were looking for because of her, in her. The need to keep her safe and out of danger rekindled the fire in your spirit." Fully expecting Ryu to argue with her, Arina was surprised when he remained silent, staring off into the distance at something only he could see.

"Ryu, it's time to stop letting your life pass you by and start living your life." This got Ryu's attention.

Spring up from where he was seated Ryu began to pace, feeling his anger beginning to build. He'd forgotten what an annoying pain his sister could be at times.

"I have lived my life. I mean shit after 4,000 years or so of being alive, I've lived more lives than any one person should be allowed to."

"Yes you've been alive, but you've never actually _lived_ life, like other people. See usually people only have 70 or 80 years to live and do the things they wanna do and see the things they wanna see, so most try to do what they can, never passing up opportunities. But where you have thousands of years to live, you don't worry about not getting to see or do the things you want. You let opportunity after opportunity pass you by. You just are, nothing more, nothing less." Standing to join her brother, Arina gently took a hold of his face between her hands and rested her forehead against his. "Please, brother let these people in and start really living your life."

Ryu heaved a soft sigh, "Maybe you're right." He whispered.

"Of course I'm right, I'm always right. Now come on its time."

"Time for what?"

"For you to go home and live out one last life time."

"Wait one last…then you mean…?"

"Yes, don't ask me to explain how these things works, they just do. Now go on, get."

This time it was Arina who pulled Ryu into a tight hug, which he returned. After a moment Arina pushed Ryu away from her and into the mist, indicating he should keep walking. With a heavy, yet light heart Ryu turned his back on his sister and fully walked in to the mist.

* * *

It was several hours after the defeat of Apocalypse and all the X-Men along with SG-1 and Jacob were all back in New York, gathered around in front of the X-mansion mourning the loss of their friend. Their moods were so low and desolate that nobody paid any attention to the strange mist that seemed to come out of nowhere. 

It wasn't until they heard what sounded like footsteps coming up the walkway that anyone even really noticed the mist. Looking in the direction of the walkway they all watched in stunned, shocked silence as Ryu came walking out of the mist, alive and in one piece. Once Ryu was fully in view the mysterious mist disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

Standing in front of the people who meant the most to him, Ryu scanned the faces looking for the one person who meant more to him the life itself. Spotting Peyton, Ryu quickly covered the ground between them and gently caressing her face pulled her into one of the most passionate and breath taking kisses either of them had ever had.

Finally breaking apart for air, Peyton wrapped her arms around Ryu and hugged him for all she was worth, never wanting to let go.

"Peyton contrary to popular belief I do need oxygen to live." Ryu whispered softly into Peyton's ear. With tears in her eyes and a faint smile Peyton loosened her hold, only slightly, and rested her forehead against Ryu's.

"I've been an idiot for too long, but no longer. Marry me Peyton." Ryu again whispered softly to Peyton after a moment of silence. Too over whelmed with emotions Peyton merely nodded her head yes and pulled Ryu into another passionate and breath taking kiss.

The sound of someone clearing their throat finally broke the two apart again. Looking at the others Ryu could see the questioning looks on all of their faces, but not knowing how to explain what had happened Ryu answered the only way he could think of.

"I don't know how or why I'm here and still alive, all I know is that I have one last life time to live and it's going to be the best life I can make it."

That night a party was thrown not only to celebrate the defeat of Apocalypse, but also the engagement of Ryu and Peyton. They had all come so close to defeat and to losing a dear friend, but in the end every thing had worked out for the best and the bond they all shared became even stronger.

* * *

The next day Ryu drove Jacob and SG-1 to the airport. After the party the night before Ryu wasn't sure they should be driving, being as hung over as they all were. After all the kids and the Professor had gone off to bed, Logan had broken into his alcohol stash and had proceeded to get plastered along with the members of SG-1, (Yes even Teal'c managed to get buzzed, so imagine how the others must be feeling) and since Jacob technically no longer had a valid drivers license that left Ryu being the chuffer. 

"Reminded me never to go drinking with Logan if we're ever in town again." Jack moaned as he poured himself at of the van Ryu had borrowed from the professor.

"I second that." Daniel agreed as he too poured himself out of the van. Sam just moaned her agreement and Teal'c raised an eyebrow.

"Don't worry I'll be sure to reminded you guys of this night every chance I get." Ryu assured them. "And its not if you're ever in town again, but when. I fully expect you guys to visit every chance you get. Plus you'll be coming back for the wedding."

Ryu laughed as he watched the four stumble through the airport entrance. When they were out of sight Ryu turned back to Jacob/Selmak.

"You know that goes for you two as well. You'd better damn well make sure you visit or at least call every time you're in the neighborhood if you know what I mean."

"Of course. Selmak wouldn't have it any other way." Jacob spoke, taking a hold of Ryu's forearm, much the same way Selmak had when they'd first met again at the SGC. "Now you go on home to your fiancé while I go make sure none of the others have died from their hangovers… you know I never thought I'd see the day someone drank Teal'c under the table."

Both men had a good laugh over that before parting ways. Watching after Jacobs retreating back for a moment longer Ryu was glad that he'd literally fallen into the laps of those at the SGC, even if it was an accident, because if he hadn't he'd probably still be out there somewhere wandering around alone and unhappy. But instead he was now happy and surround by those who truly did care about him. With that in mind Ryu returned to the X-mansion and into the loving arms of his soon to be wife.


End file.
